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Proton beam radiotherapy can minimise collateral tissue damage — an important consideration in treating childhood cancers — but at present, the costs are so high

Sir, Further to Mr Franklin’s letter (Dec 9) on the radiotherapeutic cure of cancers, modern radiotherapy in the UK uses computer-generated image-guided and modulated X-ray beams which are highly conformal, meaning that the deposition of radiation dose closely matches the tumour position and shape. Accuracy and precision have never been better.

Mr Franklin is correct that there are often side-effects caused by collateral damage to normal tissues. Proton beam radiotherapy can minimise that collateral damage — an important consideration in treating childhood cancers — but at present, the costs of cyclotron-based proton beams are so high that three big US medical insurers have

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